Science, Strategy and War
The Strategic Theory of John Boyd (Strategy and History Series)
by Frans Osinga · first published 2006
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
A scholarly, in-depth study of John Boyd's strategic theory and the OODA loop. It offers a superb summary of his thought and works through his difficult material.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…short circuits what all the dotcoms (including facebook) are slowly learning through trial and error. If you want a starting place Robert corams book on boyd is excellent, while Frans Osinga's thesis Science, strategy and war is essential reading for the hard subject matter. Here's destruction and creation. http://www.goalsys.com/books/documents/DESTRUCTION_AND_CREAT...
on “Engineering management at Facebook” ↗Thomas Schelling - The Strategy of Conflict Frans P.B. Osinga - Science, Strategy, and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd
on “What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?” ↗Certain to Win is very good. There's also sort of an "anthology" book on Boyd/OODA called Science, Strategy, and War by Osinga. You can find some other random content on dnipogo.org and in the web archive for belisarius.com (I don't know why this is down now). When reading about Boyd and his ideas, I think it's best…
on “Being Unpredictable Is a Bad Strategy” ↗Science, strategy and war. Dives into the thoughts behind John Boyd’s OODA loop. Really good book.
on “Ask HN: Any recommended books on developing mental models?” ↗If you're interested in this kind of thing I also recommend "Science, Strategy, and War" principally about John Boyd's EM theory of flight combat. https://www.amazon.com/Science-Strategy-War-Strategic-Histor...
on “Deep in the Pentagon, a secret AI program to find hidden nuclear missiles” ↗Science, Strategy, and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd,History of Sexuality by Foucault, Methophors to Live By by Lakoff All of these portray the world as a series of systems. First deals with interconnected systems like…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗You can find all of John Boyd's work on Chet Richards' website. Chet was one of the Boyd acolytes. https://slightlyeastofnew.com/439-2/ Also very much worth looking at is Frans Osinga's thesis/book "Science, strategy, and war." http://www.projectwhitehorse.com/pdfs/ScienceStrategyWar_Osi...
on “John Boyd Compendium” ↗…more brilliant stuff for people willing to put in the effort. OODA loop gets you the heart of his thought, but if you really want to understand him read a transcript of "Patterns of Conflict." Osinga's "Science, Strategy, and War" is also a superb summary of Boyd's thought, although I'm partial to "Patterns."
on “Successful people set constraints rather than chasing goals” ↗Science, Strategy and War covers the OODA loop which has a lot of similarities with systems thinking which I found useful in terms of orienting business and attacking problems.
on “Ask HN: Any recommended resources to develop system thinking?” ↗Really enjoyed Science Strategy and War. Basically using the OODA loop and using mental models to make rapid decisions. The best book on John Boyd’s OODA loop in my opinion.
on “Ask HN: Which books teach mental models?” ↗I found Science, Strategy, and War a great deep dive of the OODA Loop. https://amzn.to/3IKx77A
on “OODA Loop” ↗And do it faster than your enemy, in the context of the military setting in which it was developed. Also recommend the book Science, Strategy and War which is a PhD thesis to answer the GP’s question on research.
on “Are There Opportunities to Use OODA Loops in Your Software Project?” ↗…Tennis Impro by Keith Johnstone Seeing Like a State The Timeless Way of Building Linear and Geometric Algebra by Alan Macdonald Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (read this one thrice) The Tao of Pooh Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd The Drama of the Gifted Child Interaction Ritual What Do You Say After You Say Hello? Of niche use: Mathematics: its Content, Methods and Meaning - mostly useful…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗You are right. The book Science, Strategy and War basically promotes the idea that the Orient stage of the OODA Loop is where mental models come into play which makes sense since how else do you Orient without having an idea of what you are Orienting…
on “The OODA Loop and the Half-Beat” ↗